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I spoke with the receptionist for the sentencing judge and I also spoke with the Texas governor's switchboard operator and I confirmed that Shaquanda is to be detained for up to seven years for pushing a school door guard.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Black children are being systematically targetted in this school system, with Shaquanda receiving special persecution after her mother complained directly to the school system about perceived racism.

Let's all at least call the courthouse and the Governor's office and let them know the whole world is watching.

Posted March 30, 2007 – A crowd of more than 100 people packed Union Memorial Baptist Church in Baltimore Thursday night – not for a spring revival but to unleash their anger about police slapping handcuffs on a 7-year-old boy and arresting him for riding a motorized dirt bike on a sidewalk.

Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, president of the city branch of the NAACP, invited Mayor Sheila Dixon and Police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm to the church in attempt to smooth things out with the community, The Baltimore Sun reports.

Pulled By the Neck and Dragged"They needed this opportunity to vent," Cheatham said of the crowd, which held signs that read, "Is a motorbike a weapon of mass destruction?" and "Arresting a 7-year-old is police brutality." They needed to say to the commissioner: 'These things need to be dealt with.' This is just a microcosm of the anger in the community."

The incident happened on March 13 in east Baltimore after an officer saw Gerard Mungo Jr. on the sidewalk with his bike that his father had purchased for him for his seventh birthday. Lakisa Dinkins, Gerard's mom, said her son was just sitting on the bike with the motor off when an officer grabbed him by the collar and pulled him off.

"I told them to let go of my baby," 31-year-old Dinkins said. "Since when do you pull a 7-year-old child by his neck and drag him?"

Dinkins said she called for a police supervisor to intervene, but the confrontation just got worse after the supervisor arrived, The Examiner in Baltimore reports.

"They started yelling at him, 'Do you know what you did wrong, son?'" Dinkins said, adding that her son was so scared that he ran upstairs in tears.

Police arrested Gerard, fingerprinted him and took his mug shot and confiscated the bike, she said, adding that those actions would not have been normal procedure in a non-felony case.

Baltimore Boycott

Riding dirt bikes are illegal in Baltimore, because according to city law, they pose a serious threat to pedestrians and drivers.

The Baltimore Police Department has a zero-tolerance arrest policy, which began under the city's former Mayor Martin O'Malley, who is now Maryland's governor. That policy has gotten serious complaints because arrests like Gerard's occur more often in poor, Black neighborhoods.

"[The officer] was allowed to arrest a 7-year-old. ... So why are our Black elected officials allowing this sin?" Willie P. Davis, 66, of Windsor Hill asked at Thursday night's meeting. "Why don't they step to the plate and do their thing. [Councilwoman] Mary Pat Clarke does hers. [Dominic] "Mimi" DiPietro looked out for his people when he was in office. He wasn't articulate, but he looked out for his people. When are we going to get this type of service from our people?"

The Rev. Anthony Evans, a Washington-based pastor and head of the National Black Church Initiative, is calling for all religious conventions to boycott Baltimore in the wake of Gerard's arrest.

“We’re notifying Black churches nationwide that Baltimore should be off-limits to religious conventions,” Evans said. “We’re serious about being respected.”

Dixon, who was badgered and often cut off when trying to respond to angry residents, has apologized and said that the city government and the police need to communicate better with city residents.

"There's a lot of angry people who have a distrust for our officers, and it's imperative that our officers get back in the community and gain their trust back.

"I'm not offended by some of the anger and the disrespect that I got in that room, but what bothers me is that people don't understand sometimes the political process, so that's why I try to encourage people to get involved," Dixon said.

Charges against Gerard have been dropped, The Examiner reports.

And this...? And that ain't the 1/10th of it...More than 100 showed up? Where the freak were the other 100,000?